Vogue Empower

Not haven’t read the contents of the Vogue magazine, I will stay away from criticizing the magazine per se. But the video which seems to be being appreciated by many seems silly to say the least. All it talks about is body, freedom to have sex with whomever and whenever it is desired, to dress whatever way they wish to and not be leered at or commented upon. These seem completely irrelevant issues considering the situation of women of India to whom it is addressed.

The issue that women face today is they do not get respect and equality of the community. This is the first thing that needs to be done is to ensure that every women gets the respect that they would have got if they had been a man. For this to happen one needs to have a social revolution. The mindset of the people, both men and women, need to be changed. This is not going to be easy to achieve.

Education is one medium which can be used to build this respect for the women. But the question arises is are the mindsets of teachers (both males and females) in the education system clear enough so that they can educate the students to have this respect for the women when the become adults. Becomes a chicken and egg situation.

We need like minded people coming together and doing almost a house to house campaign, making people sensitive of to issue and spread the word.

Movies are another medium which influence a very large number of people. If people like Deepika Padukone refuse to act in movies like Om Shanthi Om which have no sense and do not show equal respect for women and men and if the directors and producers take moral responsibility and start making movies addressing this good underlying social cause rather than making movies to make (read rake in) money. Contrast the role of Deepika Padukone in Om Shanthi Om to Kangana Ranaut’s role in Queen or Nargis in Mother India. There is a humungous difference in the treatment of the women in the two movies. We need more movies like Queen than movies like Om Shanthi Om. Look at the WhatsApp post that seems to have got viral recently

She got late at office that day and she had to go home alone.

She started walking towards the auto stand

But it was too late, she had to wait for an auto. She felt like someone was following her, she turned back and ‘Bhoo’ he said. She got scared and he laughed out loud.

Her office colleague it was. “I’m here because I can’t let you walk alone towards the auto stand and don’t worry I’ll be with you till you get an auto. You are my responsibility” he said.

After ten minutes of wait, an auto came but no passenger was in there. She knew that this could probably be the last auto to pass by.

She looked in an uncomfortable manner at the auto driver. “Don’t worry sister, I’ll drop you at your home safely. You are my responsibility” the auto driver said.

She sat in.

Her home was in a dark lane, she had to walk almost five minutes in the lane to reach her home. She entered the lane and a mid-aged man was smoking and looking at her.

It was a neighbour. He threw the cigarette away and said “Come i’ll walk with you till you reach home. Don’t worry beti you are like my daughter only. You are my responsibility”

The girl finally reached home safely.

Every time I gave a pause in the write up, you must have felt that something wrong will happen. This fear is what our society has given us.

It will no longer have an existence if every man be like that office colleague or the auto driver or the neighbour.

A lot of people seem to have appreciated this message. But read the last line again.‘She’ is your responsibility too.Is “She” the only responsibility. Aren’t everybody our responsibility. There will always be bad elements in the society and it is everybody’s responsibility to protect everybody else who can be effected by these bad elements. And these need not be “Shes” these can be “Hes” too.